Month: February 2016

So many punk vibes for A/W ’16: Saint Laurent, Alexander Wang and Fenty x Puma. I’m having flashbacks to 90s grunge houndstooth and fishnet looks. I love it but I especially want to focus on “good” meets “bad” this year–baby pinks, blues, and lace mixed with edgier pieces and makeup like Son Jung Wan and Rodarte did this season.

Fashion week was quite an experience. The weather app on my phone stated that it “feels like -8 F” on one of the days and I have literally never been so cold in my life. If I were to move to NYC, I’d have to invest in some fashionable, heavy coats. My coats felt paper thin–every step outside was painful. The weather put me in a foul mood the whole time. I tried not to show it, but I was majorly grumpy. I think that may be why New Yorkers aren’t so nice. There’s constant traffic and annoying tourists on top of miserable weather. I still love the city, but it’s so incredibly different from LA. Every person I met could actually tell I was from LA. I wonder what gave it away…

coat-UNIF

dress-asos

sunglasses-Acne Studios

shoes-Zara

necklaces-from India

(photo by Nick Urteaga @coastal_flicks )

coat-asos

scarf-asos (inspired by Shrimps Clothing)

skirt-asos

sunglasses-Dior

shoes-Nike Huarache

Son Jung Wan: one of my favorites. Pantone’s colors of the year + furs. The combination of brown and blue is going to be big.

Herve Leger: variations on the bandage dress and some punk vibes

Jenny Packham: so many bright colors, 70s vibes and sparkles

Hiromi Asai: beautiful silks and patterns

Nolcha: All Comes From Nothing

(Life of Pablo sweatshirt)

top-asos

pants-asos

boots-Jeffrey Campbell

coat-Zara

jacket-Bloomingdale’s

necklace-Mr. Kate

scarf-asos

Ply Apparel: love this hat. Ply apparel had a ton of great looks for curvier women. The accessories were on point as well.

Concept Korea

Demoo Parkchoonmoo: inspired by her Korean heritage. I’m obsessed with the hair and pleats.

(Ladurée)
(Bradley Theodore event at the High Line Hotel)
(photo by @bradydrose)
(@thegreylayers)

Day 1 wowowow the energy and thrill of it all makes the 24 F degree weather somewhat okay. (Well, maybe not okay, but tolerable.) My sister and I headed to Jay Godfrey bright and early (7:45 am PST, the jet lag is real). I feel like there’s so many pieces I should have brought that I didn’t and things that I did bring I don’t want to use, etc. But I feel like that’s the life of a fashion blogger–never satisfied. It’s going to be so convenient attending fashion week when I live here because then I don’t have to plan every little detail ahead of time and travel with two suitcases (yes, two). I went for a 70s look with flare jeans, a fur coat, gold hoop earrings that match my gold ring sunglasses, and some daisy boots that I made.

Mauve & gold ❤

The magenta look is my favorite out of these three–it’s effortless.Look at those nails!An hour long presentation calls for water breaks.
(Jay Godfrey & I)(@jmalika21, @itsdevinjl, @iam_dlew)

I literally finished painting these Margiela inspired shoes the night before I left for fashion week. I bought some “leather paint” that I found on Amazon and some cheap synthetic brushes. The whole thing cost less than $60 (and took less than two hours) since I bought the shoes on sale from asos. I didn’t want to invest too much into a DIY because I feel like they never go as intended but this one went surprisingly well! I think the sloppiness of the flowers makes sense. I wish the paint had been a bit more opaque–I went over the flowers 2-3 times. I got so many compliments and a few people mistook them for the real deal which wasn’t exactly my intention.

Before we headed to the Desigual runway show, my sister and I got some french braids done at Dry Bar. They only charged about $10 and did a much better job than we could’ve done ourselves. I feel like it elevated my look and made it a little less predictable.

Desigual has some very detailed pieces; the patterns are vibrant and enticing but the styling isn’t always my favorite. The patterns tend to clash but I can appreciate the aesthetic. Fashion is what you want it to be. There is no right or wrong.

This season there were a ton of hats and some makeshift turbans that I was totally into.
(Miss J Alexander)
(Nigel Barker)

YEEZY SEASON 3. This was one of the best events of my life. The positive energy in the room was palpable. Kanye was calm and collected for the most part–I did see him yell at a couple employees mid-show when nothing had gone visibly wrong (maybe they didn’t switch the lights quick enough?) The music was incredible, I had goosebumps. I don’t totally understand the album title…I honestly feel like he just picked a title from one of his fans’ tweets. Is it The Life of Pablo Escobar or Picasso? We may never know. The whole Kardashian clan was there, @WeWoreWhat, Lamar Odom, 2 Chainz, etc. The Kardashians were dressed in white, diamonds and fur. I feel like this was done on purpose to contrast with what everyone else would be wearing–camel, khaki and black tones (typical Yeezy style). The clothes themselves were okay–the models that were on the platform donned some cool pieces. The shoes were what everyone was truly interested in. He said that he’s going to make more this season and sell them for cheaper. I love how Kanye hired regular people with different body shapes and sizes. By having a fashion show at Madison Square Garden he is literally revolutionizing the fashion industry. Fashion doesn’t have to be this exclusive thing anymore. (Though he is capitalizing on it handsomely). Setting up a fashion show you can attend by buying a ticket is such an American, capitalist thing to do and I completely support it. Kanye was playing his tracks and the whole venue was dancing along including the Kardashians and all of Kanye’s friends that were near him. He even tried to hand one of his friends the aux cord but Soundcloud wasn’t working. It literally became a big party (with a ton of security and boundaries). Upon leaving, we decided to pick up some merchandise and saw people buying 20-30 shirts each to resell which was super frustrating. The line took two hours to get through and by the time we were at the front, only XXL shirts and sweatshirts were left. Naturally, I bought one anyway because YAY YEEZY.
(The Kardashian/Jenner clan)
(Kanye!)

The LA Art Show was incredible. It was a bit overwhelming–there was a whole convention center full of artwork. LA doesn’t have many galleries or much of an emphasis on art at all, but I think this is changing.
top-asos
necklace-belt from UO
skirt-asos
shoes-Puma
(Infinity Room at The Broad)Pop Physique is my new favorite place to work out. I’ve previously taken barre but I wasn’t impressed enough by their marketing or customer service to go back. Pop Physique has fun decor and interested instructors. They accommodated my back problems and were interested in my opinions about new times for their expanding schedule (I go to the new location downtown). Parking is fairly easy in their building’s parking structure and they always have good deals and promotions going on (e.g. $25 for 10 day of unlimited classes). What I like most is that the movements are small and use 1-3 pound dumbbells. I’m not interested in bulking up, just getting more lean muscle. But don’t get me wrong, I wake up so sore that even using a hairdryer becomes a difficulty.

(Lake Tahoe)

I’m headed to NYFW this Wednesday and I’m absolutely thrilled. I have about 16 shows to attend. I’m expecting to see a lot of people wearing Gucci (the new loafers and the Dionysus handbags), baby doll dresses, baby pink and blue fur.

(one day after lash extensions)

I’ve had lash extensions a few times but wasn’t too impressed. They usually fall out within 2 weeks and cost upwards of $150. I found this little place in Koreatown called Gloss Eyelash Extensions and I highly recommend it. They gave me a really natural look and only charged $70. I’ve had them for 9 days and they still look as good as they did on day one.

There have been some mixed feelings about the new Coldplay video featuring Beyonce, so I thought I’d chime in considering I’m of East Indian descent. At first, I liked the video and thought the clothing was incredible. But as I thought more about it, I got a bit irritated. Beyonce shouldn’t have been front and center and all decked out in the Indian garb. Sonam Kapoor was positioned as a common Indian female when in reality she’s one of the biggest names in the Bollywood industry. Sonam’s outfit pales in comparison to Beyonce’s regal clothing. Sonam should’ve had Beyonce’s role. It’s as if they put her in the video to simply appease people like me. Beyonce was placed as unattainable; she didn’t even go to India for this shoot. She didn’t interact with the culture like Chris Martin did.

The video was set up in such a colonial fashion. Chris enters the scene and interacts with the commoners, placing him “above” them. As an East Indian American, I can tell you that this is a sensitive and serious issue. As a kid, I always felt like I didn’t belong because of the color of my skin. I felt disdain for my culture. Indians are extremely diverse in terms of careers, skin color and even subcultures. There are multiple film industries and 22 official languages and hundreds more–of which I only know two.

I don’t understand why India is always portrayed as having a sense of “desperate for the white man to come save us” kind of thing. The children are sitting on the floor in poverty while watching Beyonce on screen and revering her as if she is a divine figure. I think this video is a sort of blessing for my culture because it creates this type of dialogue. Indians don’t get much attention. We are stereotyped as curry-eating, bindi-wearing, funny accent-having computer scientists or terrorists. The use of holi has become so Americanized. It’s traditionally used to celebrate the Hindu religion, it’s not for color runs and music festivals. The use of a Sikh man as a cab driver is such a cliche. One cannot just go to a culture, pick the parts to appropriate and the parts to discard. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think everyone should stay away from other cultures. If one of my non-Indian friends is invited to an Indian wedding and wants to borrow a sari, I would be thrilled. This would be cultural immersion. On the other hand, if a friend wears a bindi to Coachella, I will internally roll my eyes.

Just as Taylor Swift has been ridiculed for her cultural appropriation, Beyonce and Coldplay should be as well. The song does not have any relevance to the Indian culture or the settings displayed in the video. But this video has provided a lens through which we can all voice our opinions and concerns regarding cultural appropriation.